[Biblemat] B> Gospel Observer 9/23/07
tedwards at onemain.com
tedwards at onemain.com
Fri Oct 5 12:15:20 CDT 2007
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THE GOSPEL OBSERVER
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"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching
them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20).
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September 23, 2007
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Contents:
1) Preaching Like Jeremiah (Jerry Fite)
2) News & Notes
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-1-
Preaching Like Jeremiah
by Jerry Fite
Jeremiah began his prophetic work in the thirteenth year of
Josiah's reign. As a youthful Josiah wielded kingly force to tear
down idols, young Jeremiah applied moral persuasion to eliminate
the idolatrous heart. Despite forty years of exposure to Jeremiah's
preaching, Judah's heart did not change.
One will not find Jeremiah's name among those preachers who had
success in leading many to God. People responded to his message by
mocking, smiting and imprisoning him. They continued turning their
back to God, instead of their faces (Jer. 32:33). After extending
many invitations, Jeremiah tearfully described Israel's lost
opportunities as follows: "The harvest is past, the summer is
ended, and we are not saved" (Jer. 8:20). Receiving encouraging
words for his lessons at the temple and city gates was not his to
enjoy; his solace in preaching was, "God knowest." The fact that
God approved of Jeremiah and his work makes him a worthy example
for true preaching servants of God.
Jeremiah was appointed to "pluck up, and to break down and to
destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant" (1:10). While the
people were hearing words of "peace, when there is no peace" (Jer.
6:14), Jeremiah preached of impending judgment. While Israel's
perverted worship and wayward living were tolerated by their
leaders, Jeremiah strongly denounced their idolatry and sins. While
Jeremiah's message contained hope of building and planting, it
would occur after the overthrowing and plucking (Jer. 31:28,40).
Condemnation always needs to be communicated with sound
reasoning. Jeremiah was God's communicator. He reasoned with the
people from the theme: "they are gone far from me, and have walked
after vanity, and are become vain" (Jer. 2:5). With imagery he
drove home his point: they were "forsaking the fountain of living
waters," and replacing him with "broken cisterns, that can hold no
water" (Jer. 2:13). Surely no right thinking person would turn away
from a flowing fountain and walk downstream to build a leaky pit to
hold the water. But Israel did this when they served Baal and
Asherah instead of God, the fountain of living waters. In following
after gods of vanity, Israel became vain. The leaky cisterns would
not save them, only God could. In turning away from him they were
facing their own "hurt" (Jer. 7:6).
Preachers today need to preach Jeremiah's outline. One does not
simply commit one sin by forsaking God; he adds another, the making
of his own idol. Many have turned their affections away from God to
embrace empty materialism. Putting money and pleasure first, our
society has become vain. In the midst of lamenting the symptoms of
a crumbling society, we need to hear the cause: we have forsaken
God. Until our society turns to God, following his commands in his
word, we can expect "hurt," not healing.
In Jeremiah's day, God's people lost their sense of shame. When
they should have been ashamed for their covetousness and deceitful
dealings, they could not blush. Jeremiah was not bashful in his
condemnation. He says, "For from the least of them to the greatest
of them every one is given to covetousness: and from the prophet
even unto the priest everyone dealeth falsely. . . Were they not
ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at
all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall
among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be
cast down, saith Jehovah" (Jer. 6:13,15).
With condemnation of Judah's brazenness, Jeremiah offered the
Divine solution: "Thus saith Jehovah, stand ye in the ways and see,
and ask for the old paths, where is the good way: and walk therein,
and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jer. 6:16). Rest for their
souls demanded seeking the paths that God first set before his
people at Sinai, and walking accordingly.
Jeremiah reminds us that man's inability to blush does not mean
he has no reason to be ashamed. Some brethren no longer blush when
wearing their immodest shorts and skimpy swim suits in public. Some
no longer blush when dancing in their school proms. Some no longer
blush in drinking alcoholic beverages in social settings. The
purity and influence for good among God's people today demands
instruction, pointing God's people back to the principles found in
the "old paths" of the gospel.
"Modest" dress, sensitive to its effects upon others by
remaining well within the bounds of that which is proper
("shamefastness"), manifesting sound judgment ("sobriety"), and in
accord with one who is "professing godliness" is the good way of
the Lord that many are ignoring (1 Tim. 2:9-10). The prom dance may
appear sophisticated and graceful, but the indecent bodily
movements and unchaste handling of another's body are shameful
exhibitions of lasciviousness that have no place in the Christian's
life (Gal. 5:19; 1 Cor. 6:18; Matt. 5:28). The drink which deadens
godly restraints and leads to drunkenness, addiction, ruined lives
and death is no drink for the Christian, socially or privately (cf.
1 Pet. 4:3-4; Tit. 2:12; Gal. 5:20; 1 Cor. 6:11).
Old paths, if not continually marked and traveled upon will
soon blend in with the rest of the field, Glorifying God with godly
living, while guarding closely one's example before others is the
Lord's clear path (Matt. 5:16; 1 Cor. 10:31-32; Phil. 2:14-16; 1
Tim. 4:16). Immodest apparel on the streets or by the pool, dancing
and social drinking will never promote the good way of the Lord.
They will hinder our profession of purity. Brethren today need
preaching like Jeremiah's to keep the paths marked, and we all need
to walk accordingly.
"Rising up early" to "speak," "teach" and "protest" were
familiar phrases in Jeremiah's preaching (Jer. 25:3; 32:33; 11:7).
As one would rise early to attend to urgent matters, God sent his
servants to speak out, instruct and condemn Israel's sin. Such
urgency to condemn error and warn of judgment did not come from a
sadistic God but a compassionate One. The chronicler records,
"Jehovah, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers,
rising up early and sending because he had compassion on his people
and on his dwelling place" (2 Chron. 36:15).
Like God who sent him, Jeremiah condemned sin with a
compassionate heart. Convicted of the reality of judgment, Jeremiah
communed with his soul in anguish for his people's fate (Jer.
4:19-22). He contained more anguish in his heart over his people's
destruction than he had tears. "Oh that my head were waters, and
mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for
the slain of the daughter of my people" (Jer. 9:1). He responded to
Judah's refusing to return to the Lord with crying "in secret" over
their "pride" (Jer. 13: 19). While he refused to be part of their
evil ways (Jer. 9:2), Jeremiah did not admonish Israel's sin
unsympathetically.
Over six hundred years after Jeremiah preached judgment with
tears, another preacher appeared reminding people of Jeremiah. His
name was Jesus. After Jesus had begun preaching he asked the
question, "Who do men say that the son of man is?" Jesus learned
from his disciples that some said he was "Jeremiah" (Matt.
16:13-14). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was not bashful in exposing popular
sins, nor timid in warning of judgment (Matt. 15:1-9; 8:11-12;
23:1-25:46). Yet, who does not hear the compassion in his heart
when he cries, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem" and feel his pain, when he
like Jeremiah laments, "Behold your house is left unto you
desolate" (Matt. 23:38; Jer. 10:22)? Jeremiah and Jesus exemplify a
balance needed in all preachers. They were uncompromising toward
sin, while compassionate over the fate of the sinner.
The world, just a heartbeat away from eternal destruction, does
not need a preacher who offers false peace and tolerates sin.
Sinners need the preacher who condemns sin with sound reasoning,
sets before all the good way of the Lord and warns of imminent
judgment with tears. If God were to come in judgment tomorrow, the
world would need preaching like Jeremiah's today.
-- via Guardian of Truth XXXVI: 3, pp. 70-71, February 6, 1992
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-2-
News & Notes
R.J. Evans had been having some trouble with his intestines,
following his recent corrective surgery. It was thought to have
been an ileus, but healed on his return from the hospital September
22. He is now back on solid food again and feeling better. Let
those of us who are saints pray that all will continue to go well
for him.
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MYRTLE STREET CHURCH OF CHRIST
1022 Myrtle Street
Denham Springs, LA 70726
(225) 664-8208
Sunday: 9:15 AM, 10:00 AM, 4:00 PM
Wednesday: 7:00 PM
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520
e-mail: tedwards at onemain.com
web site: http://home.onemain.com/~tedwards/go
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